diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index 73c872434..e094adf47 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@ ikiwiki (2.40) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
   * Fix links generated by preprocessor directives when previewing.
   * inline: When forcing urls absolute for rss feeds, skip mailto and other
     such urls.
+  * ikiwiki-makerepo: Don't fail if the third argument ends in a slash.
 
  -- Josh Triplett <josh@freedesktop.org>  Sun, 10 Feb 2008 13:18:58 -0800
 
diff --git a/ikiwiki-makerepo b/ikiwiki-makerepo
index dd23b4638..a97c060c2 100755
--- a/ikiwiki-makerepo
+++ b/ikiwiki-makerepo
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ if [ "$rcs" != mercurial ] && [ "$rcs" != bzr ]; then
 		echo "repository $repository already exists, aborting" >&2 
 		exit 1
 	fi
-	repository="$(perl -e 'use Cwd q{abs_path}; print abs_path(shift)' $repository)"
+	repository="$(perl -e 'use Cwd q{abs_path}; $r=shift; $r=~s/\/*$//; print abs_path($r)' $repository)"
 	if [ -z "$repository" ]; then
 		echo "internal error finding repository abs_path" >&2
 		exit 1